


Rest in Shadow

by UndyingEmbers



Category: Shadowrun: Dragonfall
Genre: Blood and Injury, M/M, Male Human Adept, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Post Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:29:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25909648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UndyingEmbers/pseuds/UndyingEmbers
Summary: After a particularly grueling run, the team find some respite in the U-Bann.
Relationships: Blitz/Male Protagonist
Comments: 5
Kudos: 6





	Rest in Shadow

The team was hitting an Ares complex, a distribution facility handing out weapons to the corporate forces and the Flux State. Though Ares was technically on the corporate side, this conflict was making them a lot of money. Raz and his team were hired by the Flux State to go in and steal shipment info.

Things went south. Of course they did. An alarm got tripped. The facility locked down. Security came in: over a dozen elite Knights Errant surrounded the team, packing more firepower than anyone they had ever faced. Raz, Eiger, and Dietrich made their stand while Blitz tapped away furiously on his cyberdeck trying to get the doors open.

Raz was right in the midst of the enemy, weaving around their gunshots as he broke their bones and squashed their soft tissue with a series of punches, uppercuts, kicks, haymakers, and elbow strikes. _Qi_ flowed through his body, powering his every step and strike. Eiger and Dietrich hunkered down with Eiger shooting rounds at the Knights Errant and Dietrich giving magical healing and support to whichever of the two needed it most. Blitz was taking cover behind one of the dividing walls. Keeping him alive was paramount to getting out of there alive, and if they didn’t get out of there soon, an army of corporate soldiers would surround the building and trap them in.

The waves of security coming at them were endless. Every time they took someone down, it seemed another took their place. It has gone on for too long. Raz’s _qi_ reserves were getting low, and he had taken so many hits, gunshots, and fire blasts. Once his _qi_ ran out, he would be feeling pain unlike what most people would ever feel. Eiger was running low on ammo. Dietrich was showing early signs of Drain--the shaman’s skin was pale, and he was breathing heavily, nearly slumped behind the desk he was taking cover with.

“Damn it,” Raz heard Eiger yell through the team commlink, “how much longer is it going to take, Blitz?”

“Just hang on,” the decker said between gritted teeth, his voiced panicked. “They’ve got some of the most intense Black IC in here. I-”

Blitz’s comm cut off. A mild smoking smell came from the direction of the computer he was hacking.

Raz caught a glare on the periphery of his vision. It was the barrel of a long sniper rifle reflecting the phosphorescent building lights. The sniper was positioned on an alcove a little ways away from the fight, positioned so that she could get a clear shot of Blitz around the wall.

She was pointing that gun right at the decker.

Raz didn’t think. He gathered his _qi_ through his body and closed the distance between him and the sniper, almost blasting his way past the other security. He felt something clip him on the side, but it wasn’t anything that was going to stop him. The sniper only had a moment to turn to him and gasp before he delivered a palm strike--quick and efficient, but with the driving force of a sledgehammer--right under her chin. His hand connected with the bottom of her Knights Errant helmet and snapped her head so far back that her neck broke.

“Got it!” Blitz yelled. The metal security doors started to open.

“Let’s get out of here!” Raz yelled.

The team didn’t need to be told twice. Eiger grabbed her guns and ducked as she ran to the exit with her characteristic efficiency. Dietrich picked himself up and ran out after her with a look of gritted determination on his face. Blitz pulled the cable out of his datajack. He was disoriented and sluggish, so Raz grabbed and carried him out as he sped by.

There was still more to do. They had to escape the building before Ares could reinstate the lockdown, and they had to get far away before the police and the corporate army got there, but they made it to the U-Bann station. All the while, Raz ran on adrenaline and what was left of his _qi_. He knew his body would make him pay for this run, but for now he just needed to get everyone home.

The U-Bann was empty enough that they had a car to themselves. Graffiti covered the walls of this little cart, and it smelled like garbage, but for now it was the closest thing the runners had to safety.

Raz hardly made it to one of the seats. He collapsed and had to catch himself right on the edge and crawled his way up the bench--a feat that seemed harder than climbing a mountain--and sprawled out over two seats. He felt like he got hit by ten trucks. He hurt everywhere from all the wounds he had undoubtedly taken from the fight--he wouldn't know until he took a look at his body, and he didn't really want to right now--and he was feeling a massive amount of Drain: his muscles felt so sore and so weak, a consequence of pushing too much magic too quickly through his body. He’d feel as weak as a kitten for a good long while.

The team did not look that much better. Across from Raz, Dietrich was feeling the effects of his own Drain: the shaman was slumped in his seat, breathing heavily, sweat pouring down his face, neck, and chest. Blitz stumbled onto the seat next to Raz, holding his head in his hand, still reeling from the biofeedback damage he had taken. Only Eiger looked relatively fine: of all of them, she was the only one who hadn’t been targeted much or needed to expend personal resources to get through the fight.

Eiger frowned as the U-Bann pulled away from the station. “Fearless Leader, you’re bleeding out.”

Raz looked down at his side. Sure enough there was a large patch of blood leaking through his shirt. The blood seeped down his pants and through his long coat, even pooling a little bit on the seats.

“Huh,” said Raz.

“That does not look good,” said Blitz as he inched away from the pool of blood.

“I’d take care of that for you, boss,” said Dietrich, panting heavily, “but I’m all tapped out on magic right now.”

“Are there any medkits left?” Raz asked.

The rest of the team looked through their packs. They used up a lot of their medkits on that run, and neither Eiger nor Dietrich could find any in their packs.

“Found one,” said Blitz as he took it out of his bag. “It’s my last one, so...”

Eiger helped Raz take off his coat and shirt. His body was a wreck: the torso was completely covered in bruises, and one of his ribs hurt when he tried to lie down on it. The bleeding came from a bullet hole on his left side. It must have been when he got clipped as he was taking out the sniper. He had put so much _qi_ into his speed and strength that there wasn’t any left to stop the bullet. The team did their best to clean and dress the wounds and wipe up the blood from the seat. It would have to do until they got back to the Kruezbasar.

The U-Bann kept rolling. Dietrich and Eiger had settled in across from Raz, Blitz next to him. The decker had his cyberdeck balanced on his lap. Blitz wasn’t jacked into the Matrix, just deep in concentration as he typed away.

Raz saw...something running down Blitz’s nose. In the somewhat dark U-Bann took him a few seconds to realize that it wasn’t a shadow. It was blood. And it wasn’t some of Raz’s blood that had gotten on him. Blitz was bleeding through his nose.

“Blitz,” said Raz. When Blitz didn’t answer, Raz nudged him on the leg with his foot and called his name more loudly.

“Hm? Whatisit?” Blitz asked.

“You’re bleeding,” said Raz. He made a motion towards his own nose with his fingers.

Blitz reached up to his own face and wiped where the bleeding was with his fingers.

“Hold on.” Raz reached over to where his coat hung on the seat railing (his body protesting the whole way). He dug into his pocket (the one on the opposite side of where he had bled out) and fished out a cloth handkerchief. He reached for Blitz’s face and wiped the blood off. Blitz’s eyes widened as Raz’s fingers brushed his upper lip through the cloth. Blitz looked down at Raz’s hand, then at Raz’s face.

“Take it,” said Raz.

Blitz very slowly brought his hand up to hold the handkerchief in place before Raz took his hand away. Out of the corner of his eye, Raz saw Dietrich craning his head to look out the window and Eiger cleaning her weapons with a very focused look on her face.

“You should let Ezkibel check you over,” said Raz. “Make sure that you didn’t get an aneurysm from the Black IC.”

Blitz scoffed. “Thanks, Mom,” he said as he turned back to his cyberdeck, holding Raz’s handkerchief to his nose.


End file.
